Mark your calendar. The Boxing Ministry has their annual awards banquet on May 14th. This year the Ministry will honor the great former WBC light heavyweight champion and Hall of Famer, Matthew Saad Muhammad.

Also tentatively slated to be on hand is WBA welterweight champ Jose Rivera. This talented champion sports an impressive 37-3-1 record with 24 KOs. Rivera soon hopes to meet and defeat unbeaten mandatory challenger Thomas Damgaard. If successful, Jose will find himself in middle of a very interesting mix at 147-pounds. Now that Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley are coming back down to welterweight, Rivera hopes to land a huge money fight with one or the other.

As in past Ministry banquets, a local group of great Youngstown area boxers will be in attendance. That would include former IBF lightweight champion Harry Arroyo, former IBF cruiserweight champion Jeff Lampkin and former WBC bantamweight champion Greg Richardson. It is also possible that former Olympian Jerry Page and former middleweight contender Rusty Rosenberger will attend.

At past Ministry banquets I have had the pleasure of meeting such notables as Earnie Shavers, Emile Griffith, Howard Davis Jr., Pete Rademacher and Doyle Baird.

The banquet will be held at the Old North Church in Canfield, Ohio. Tickets are $20.00 in advance. For tickets please send a SASE to The Boxing Ministry/3675 Polley Drive/ Austintown, Ohio/ 44515.